St Andrew’s Church in Kildare Road was completed in 1894 – the first of more than fifty churches in South Africa to be designed by Sir Herbert Baker. Anders Ohlsson, founder of the nearby brewery (see below) was one of the chief benefactors. The membership of the church was disrupted by the forced removals of the 1960’s.
St. Andrew’s Church in Newlands was built in 1894. The first church in Newlands was built in 1857 and still stands at the corner of Newlands Avenue and Palmboom Road. This church, designed by Sophy Gray, wife of the first Bishop of Cape Town, is now a national monument. St Andrew’s Church in Newlands celebrated its centenary in 1994. The foundation stone was laid by Lady Loch, wife of the Governor of the Cape, on 6 March 1894, and the completed building was consecrated by the Bishop West Jones on St Andrew’s Day, 30 November. It was the first of more than fifty churches in South Africa to be designed by Sir Herbert Baker1.
The structure is of Table Mountain stone quarried not far from the church. The walls are of dressed stone in courses, with eight buttresses on the north, six on the south, and two each on the east and west walls1. Originally it had a thatched roof, which in 1949 was replaced by wooden shingles, and they in turn by a new roof of mazista slate in 19691. A church bell, donated in 1895, was mounted in a turret added to the roof in 18971. Inside, high on the west wall, is a circular children’s window depicting Jesus with six young children. This was brought from the earlier second chapel on the south side of Palmboom Road. The three-light east window above and behind the altar shows the Good Shepherd with two angels holding zithers. This was dedicated in August 1912 and is South Africa’s only example of Burne Jones glass. The other two windows, a bequest in 1940 by a former churchwarden, were designed and made by a firm in Durban and mounted in 1981.
WHERE: 77 Kildare Road, Newlands, Cape Town, 7700 INFO: T 021 674 3851 | E office@standrewsnewlands.org.za